May 28, 2010

A Straw In The Wind For Sestak

The official White House talking points on the mysterious Sestak job offer have been released. The gist - they never discussed Secretary of the Navy with Sestak, the chosen emissary was Bill Clinton, and the "jobs" were unpaid advisory board positions which would have allowed Sestak to raise his profile and keep his House seat. Early press coverage (contra some later stuff) does suggest that the contact with Sestak was indirect, so the Clinton connection may actually be the truth (or at least part of it). And Sestak was a Hillary supporter, so one presumes a Clinton bond was forged during the Clinton Administration when Sestak was on the NSC.

Rep. Joe Sestak, winner of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate
primary, is refusing to provide more information on what job he was
offered by a White House official to drop of that race, although he
confirmed again that the incident occurred.

The White House was backing incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) in
the primary. Sestak acknowledged in an interview in February that he was
offered a position by an unnamed White House official - a potential
violation of federal law - but has not offered any specifics on
conversation.

So why do they think the job offer came from a White House official? I am not going to be able to track down every utterance of Sestak, but he was a bit vague in his "bombshell" interview with Larry Kane and my understanding is that he has not advanced the story since them. Here is some early coverage from Feb 20, 2010 which tilts Sestak's way:

In the face of a White House denial, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak stuck to his
story yesterday that the Obama administration offered him a
"high-ranking" government post if he would not run against U.S. Sen.
Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary.

"I was asked a direct question . . . and I answered it honestly," Sestak
said in a Fox News interview. "There's nothing more to go into."

Sestak made his startling claim Thursday during the taping of Comcast
Network's Larry Kane: Voice of Reason, a public affairs show
televised on Sunday evenings.

"Were you ever offered a federal job to get out of this race?" Kane
asked near the end of the 30-minute interview.

"Yes," Sestak answered.

"Was it Navy secretary?" Kane asked.

"No comment," Sestak replied.

In response to follow-up questions from the host, Sestak said the job
was offered by the White House. He also nodded when asked if the offer
was for a high-ranking post.

Here is the Fox coverage; it sounds like a windy "no comment, but if someone could find that Fox transcript and dump it in the comments that would be lovely.

Let's note that nodding when asked if the job was offered by the White House is not the same as saying the offer came from a White House official; if Clinton met him as a White House emissary, Sestak's response would have been reasonable. We also note this:

The Washington Post reported yesterday [link] that Sestak, in a separate
interview Thursday about White House pressure, said, "There has been
some indirect means in which they were trying to offer things if I got
out."

After yesterday's taping, Sestak said he recalled the White House
offer coming in July, as he was preparing to formally announce his
Senate candidacy in August. He declined to identify who spoke to him or
the job under discussion. Sestak also would not say whether the person
who approached him worked for the administration or was an intermediary
for the offer.

"I'm not going to say who or how and what was offered," Sestak said
in an interview. "I don't feel it's appropriate to go beyond what I
said," because the conversation was confidential.

Well, Sestak didn't say it was not a White House official. But it was clever of him to leave the door open for Clinton even last February.

As I read this, Sestak told the WaPo that the approach was indirect; he was vague with everyone else, but (at least initially) does not seem to have claimed that the approach came directly from a White House official.

All helpful for the Dems, and one can see why Sestak wants to leave his former C-in-C out of it.

Comments

Moneyrunner, I'm reprinting this from your blogspot (and thank you):

US Code -- Section 600: Promise of employment or other benefit for political activity"), it is clear that any offer of a job "directly or indirectly ... to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity ... in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election" is an illegal act.

What I don't get is, if the WH really wanted him out of the race, why didn't they just offer him an immediate full time job, without conditions? He couldn't very well take it AND run for Senate. I don't see how that could be illegal.

The WaPo has the Clinton admission on page 1 today and the editors put in their 2cents....
The tenor is the White House should have cleared things up earlier but nothing happened. No big deal. Republicans are trying to make it a big deal..but it is not.
That is the tenor anyway.
This outrage has not been selected.

Hmmmm Well here is an interesting tidbit from the Examiner LUN
Sestak was ineligible for the job that Clinton offered.
andSo far, there has been little discussion of the fact that the Bauer statement said “options for executive branch service were raised with [Sestak].” The plural “options”
I think you raised that point Jane...

Hhhhmmm - from Real Clear Politics in June of 2009 comes a lengthy article about Sestak.

I found this paragraph particularly interesting:

In the interview, Sestak offered a long list of legislative accomplishments that went far beyond military matters. They include bills or provisions on veterans affairs, autism, education and small business. In fact, Sestak said he opted out of joining the Intelligence Committee in order to join the Education and Labor and Small Business panels, arguing that they were more relevant to his constituents.

Wasn't an Intel Board mentioned in the carrot that Bubba supposedly dangled before him?

Also, read the whole article, which goes back to my theory that Sestak held the winning hand in the game of poker he was playing with the Obama crew. The article references some of his own prior experience with getting a candidate out of a race - HIS congressional race!

And, there is also this:

In The New York Times on Friday, Sestak fired across the bows not only of Rendell but also President Obama, dubbing them part of a Democratic establishment that is trying to act as a kingmaker in the race. Such comments are a daring move for a junior House Member with aspirations for higher office. "He could give a flying flip what [party leaders] are saying," said a former aide.

The best part is that Sestak never reported the contacts to the FBI or FEC... any contact regarding a job in exchange for not running in one position to continue running in another (as a Representative) is a deal of a job for political favor.

When one does not report such contact that is a crime.

When one works to cover up such contact that is also a crime.

Sestak may have the chips, but the next round has already dealt him a couple of jokers. And those cards are not pretty ones to have in your hand considering who else is at the table... and the last pot of chips have a lot of IOUs in it to not get any attention in the FBI or FEC to look into this. And he doesn't get to walk away from this table no matter how much he wishes to as he is now bought and paid for. What a tangled and nasty web conspiracy becomes.

Ah, Tops, but chess and poker are two different games! I say the players at the poker table were all crooks and cheaters, so it didn't matter who walked away with the kitty. (If it WAS Sestak, he will forever have to watch his back - heh!)

But, now, the chess game - getting elected and respected, that is yet to be determined. Toomey may yet checkmate!

Just an additional fact from the Pennsylvania talk show host who asked Sestak the job question in February. he said that he called the White House communications office and played the Sestak interview and asked for their comments so he could get both sides. The person answering the phone listened and told him someone would call him right back. In a short while another person called him back and again said someone would get back with a response. What this talk host found incredible was that 11 hours later someone finally got back to him and said it wasn't true!!! I heard Mark Levin read this account on his show Friday night.